The end bit

If you've made it this far through this heinous trawl of an ego trip, then I both congratulate and thank you. The point of writing this diary up for diskant was not to celebrate ourselves, but to show how it is possible for bands operating at any kind of level to book and organise tours outside of their home country. Our week abroad did take some organising over a number of months, but no one would dispute that it was worth all those hours on French messageboards, chatting to complete strangers and trying to persuade them to put us on, looking desperately for vans big enough to take everything we needed, but also somehow affordable (we ended up using www.thrifty.co.uk, but would definitely recommend using a DIY van guy if you are contemplating doing any touring of your own - email me if you're after any contacts).

The result of a lot of honest, hard work was probably the best experience of our lives, and easily the best tour-cum-holiday that anyone could ask for. And YOU CAN DO THIS. It takes effort, but I would recommend the experience to anyone. We travelled without insurance, without any experience of doing this kind of thing before, and without ever having played more than three gigs in the space of a week before. And it was nothing but an unadulterated success. In the space of four gigs we sold out of virtually every record we brought, thanks to scarily enthusiastic and friendly audiences (well, except for Reims), and we almost made back the money we laid out in the first place for the van/ferry tickets. All our final costs came down to hotels, petrol, and the food we weren't served at venues. We took only ourselves, some instruments, a few sleeping bags and a bag full of fifty CDs, and spent a week having the time of our lives. Thank you to everyone who helped out, came to a show, bought a record, or even just gave advice: you are too numerous to list in detail here, but you know who you are.

Phew, that's it!